' LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







METHODIST 



EPISCOPALIANISM 



BY MRS. G. W. CHANDLER, 




NEW YORK: HUNT & EA TON 
CINCINNA TI: CRANSTON &• STOWE 
1889 



|m us***?! 

Dor COHGHESSl 
BwASHlHGTO^J 



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Copyright, Z 88 9 , by 
HU "T <* E AT O J 
New York. 



NOTE. 



This treatise is composed of brief papers 
prepared at the request of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Alliance oi students in Cornell University, 
and read before that body ; afterward re-read, 
by request, before the students' Presbyterian 
Union in the same University. The following 
resolution led to their publication : 

Resolved, That it is ' our sense, as members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Alliance of Cornell University, that 
the series of papers on " Methodist Episcopalianism " 
presented before us during the winter and spring terms 
of 1888 by Mrs. G. W. Chandler is the clearest and most 
attractive exposition of the subject of which we have 
knowledge ; that it has given us a higher conception of 
the origin, achievements, and destiny of Methodism ; 
that it has inspired us with a new zeal for our Church, 
and that it merits a circulation throughout our whole 
Church. We therefore recommend that the series be 
published by the Methodist Episcopal Publishing House 
for wide circulation. 

The above resolution and recommendation 
were adopted by unanimous vote of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Alliance of Cornell University 
May 26, 1888. ^ Author. 



TO 

THE HONORED BAND 

OF 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL STUDENTS 

IN 

CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY 



PREFACE. 



NOTHING is claimed for these 
papers but an honest desire to 
help the young men and young women 
at whose request they were prepared. 
History is accessible to all. Facts can 
be learned by those who will seek after 
them. I have only brought salient 
points near together that those whose 
time was already crowded could pause 
a little to listen to them while on the 
way from one duty to another. 

Not thinking that these sketches would 
live after the hour of their presentation 
to those for whom they were prepared, 
and feeling sure that only my own eyes 
would ever see them, all notes of refer- 



8 



Preface. 



ence were destroyed as their subject- 
matter was used, myself feeling satisfied 
with their source and genuineness. To 
give them now would necessitate a repe- 
tition of the work of five months. In 
this matter permit me to beg a kindly 
forbearance. 

Critical eyes may find, in some cases, 
that quotation-marks do not appear 
where they should. In the haste of 
copying, and having no thought of print- 
er's ink, these may have been overlooked ; 
but I am almost sure that in more than 
one case such marks surround my own 
words, for in the last reading a fear 
possessed me that took away the power 
of judging whether certain expressions 
or thoughts were original. 

With any thing but confidence do I 
finally let these bits of paper go out of my 
hand. The criticisms found in them are 



Preface. 9 

the expression of strong personal convic- 
tion. Only an unprejudiced reading is 
asked for them. 

It would have been easier to occupy 
the twenty or thirty minutes of each of 
three evenings with commendatory words 
of a great Church. But the genius of our 
beloved Methodism has been so misrep- 
resented and misunderstood — strange to 
acknowledge, by those who are of us as 
well as those who are outside (the latter, 
I am convinced, being chiefly misled by 
the former) — and we have so often 
grieved the loss from our communion of 
noble, high-minded young workers, that 
when a request for these papers came to 
me from the President of the Alliance 
it is hardly to be wondered at that it 
should have seemed a duty to express 
such convictions before the young per- 
sons who were soon to go out into the 



IO 



Preface. 



world, to take their places in missionary 
fields, in the pulpit, and the other learned 
professions, or as accomplished lay mem- 
bers in the Church of Christ. 

But, when each several evening came 
for reading, I have to confess to a strong 
temptation to omit certain paragraphs 
until rebuked by conscience for lack of 
moral courage. Afterward, the expres- 
sions of thanks received from those alert 
minds covered, in each instance, the very 
ground upon which I had stood with 
such cowardly misgiving. I. C. C. 



METHODIST EPISCOPALIANS. 



I. 



HE name Methodist is a hundred 



A years older than Charles Wesley's 
formation of the Holy Club in Oxford. 
It was applied to Nonconformists "for 
their views respecting the method of 
man's justification before God." A class 
of high Calvinistic divines in England 
about the time of Wesley also bore the 
title. 14 The American societies existed 
nearly four years under the express title 
of an Episcopal Church with the appro- 
bation of Wesley. The Church in 
America adhered to the doctrines and 
discipline of the Church of England 




12 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

until the tie was dissolved by the war of 
the Revolution, when Thomas Coke was 
appointed by John Wesley as Bishop to 
meet the exigency." " The main feature 
of the discipline of the English Church 
consists in its episcopal superintendence, 
and American Methodism certainly 
resembles it in this." Wesley did not 
ordain ministers in England because he 
was determined to violate as little as 
possible the established order of the 
Church to which he belonged. But in 
America there were none to baptize or 
administer the sacrament ; so he declared 
that his scruples were at an end. It was 
a case of necessity to meet the needs 
of the new country ; and this is how we, 
as a Church, fell out by the way in 
the so-called order of apostolic succes- 
sion. 

" The rationale of the Methodism of 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 13 

the last century," says an eloquent writer, 
" must always be thought worthy of the 
most serious regard ; in fact, that great 
religious movement has, immediately or 
remotely, so given an impulse to Chris- 
tian feeling and profession on all sides 
that it has come to present itself as the 
starting-point of modern religious his- 
tory." 

As our Church has given the largest 
honor to the labors of devout women 
it is well to record here the answer of 
Susanna Wesley when her greatest son 
questioned whether he ought to leave 
her to come to this country as a mis- 
sionary. " I can be," he said, " the staff 
of her age, her chief support and com- 
fort." Her reply showed the heroic fiber 
of her soul — this aged, widowed, depend- 
ent mother. " If I had twenty sons," she 
said, " I should rejoice that they were 



14 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

all so employed, though I should never 
see them again." 

This answer resulted in the departure 
from London for America on the 14th 
of October, 1735, of the two Wesleys, 
with Ingham and Delamotte. The Wes- 
leys came to America as a sort of pen- 
ance, to purchase, by rigorous self-sacri- 
fice, the peace of soul they so desired. 
But, so strangely does God ordain, they 
were taught where they came to teach. 
A Moravian pastor questioned John 
Wesley so closely upon the witness of 
the Spirit as to greatly arouse him ; 
still, although his father had died in 
that faith, he was not ready for its ac- 
ceptance. The old idea of winning by 
works that which is offered as a free 
gift held him. His food was bread and 
water, he slept on the ground, and went 
barefooted, to encourage the poor. This 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 15 

severity lost him influence, and, fifteen 
months after Charles had returned with 
a discouraged heart to England, John 
followed him. Severe penance did not 
satisfy his heart. The pitiful entries in 
his journals concerning his lack of ability 
to believe that his sins were forgiven 
make very pathetic reading. 

1776 dates the true epoch of Amer- 
ican Methodism, and this is the begin- 
ning of its beginning: In 1758 John 
Wesley found in the County of Limerick, 
Ireland, a cluster of miserable Teutonic 
villages, whose inhabitants had been for 
nearly half a century without pastors 
who could speak their language. They 
were thoroughly demoralized ; noted for 
drunkenness, profanity, and utter neglect 
of religion. But after Mr. Wesley's 
itinerants had visited the place and 
labored among them a large chapel 



1 6 Methodist Episcopalianism. 



was erected in the center of the lead- 
ing town. Wesley says that three such 
villages were hardly to be found any- 
where else in England or Ireland. 
"There was no cursing nor swearing, 
no Sabbath-breaking, no drunkenness, 
no ale-house in any of them. They 
had become a serious, thinking people, 
and their diligence had turned all their 
land into a garden." 

This seed was in about two years' 
time transplanted in America, and thirty 
years later, at the time of Wesley's 
death, its " vigorous boughs extended 
from Canada to Georgia, from the 
Atlantic to the Mississippi, sheltering 
more than sixty-three thousand of com- 
municants and two hundred and fifty 
traveling preachers. In thirty years 
more, in 1820, American Methodism 
numbered over seventeen thousand 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 17 

more than the parent Church, including 
all its foreign dependencies." 

These Palatines of Limerick, Ireland, 
these German-Irishmen, whose conver- 
sion led to so great results, were first 
" driven from the Palatinate on the 
Rhine by the papal troops of Louis 
XIV., and were provided for by Queen 
Anne, some in England, some in Ire- 
land, some in America." The Teutonic 
Methodists in the County of Limerick, 
who were the real founders of American 
Methodism, were descendants of those 
persecuted Protestants " whose perse- 
cutions led to some of the most ener- 
getic developments of Protestantism in 
the modern history of religion." 

"On a spring morning in 1760 a 
group of emigrants might have been 
seen at the custom-house quay, Limer- 
ick, preparing to embark for America. 
2 



18 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

. . . They were Palatines from Balligar- 
rane and were " accompanied by crowds 
of friends. The leader seemed to be 
Philip Embury, "a young man with a 
thoughtful look and resolute bearing." 
Barbara Heck, his cousin, accompanied 
by her husband, Paul Heck, was of the 
group. Embury had been converted in 
1752, after hearing John Wesley preach 
in Ireland. He became the first class- 
leader and local preacher of Methodism 
on our continent, while Barbara Heck, 
known to us as a mother in Israel, was 
the one who should urge him to the per- 
formance of duty. 

This party of emigrants numbered 
less than twenty. After their arrival in 
New York, all save those named lost 
their sense of the fear of God and sank 
into different degrees of sin. Late in 
1765 another vessel arrived, bringing a 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 19 

few more Wesleyans. On visiting them 
upon one occasion Barbara Heck found 
some of the party engaged in a game of 
cards. With impulsive zeal she seized 
the cards, threw them into the fire, most 
solemnly warned the company of their 
danger and duty, and then went imme- 
diately to the dwelling of Embury, and, 
confessing what she had done, she " ap- 
pealed to him to be silent no longer, but 
to preach the word. She turned aside 
his excuses," her grief and earnestness 
touched his heart, and when she urged 
him to begin at once, in his own house, 
" he consented, and she went out and 
brought in four persons, who, with her- 
self, constituted his audience. After 
singing and prayer he preached to them, 
and enrolled them in a class, continuing 
thereafter to preach to them weekly." 
The house of the preacher grew too small, 



20 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

a larger room was hired, and provided 
for by contributions. In a short time 
two classes were organized. Embury's 
labors were widely extended, and in- 
cluded the alms-house, where the poor 
heard him gladly. 

If you will pardon a little digression I 
would like to say privately, to you, 
that I have always been a little morti- 
fied over this one act of our first Ameri- 
can mother in Israel. Zeal is good ; but 
it should have no fellowship with dis- 
courtesy. If the card-players had come 
into Barbara Hecks own home, and 
against her wishes had amused them- 
selves with their game, a righteous in- 
dignation might have justified her in 
seizing the cards and throwing them into 
the fire. But she had not that provoca- 
tion. She was in the home of another. 
The chroniclers do not say that she had 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 21 



been invited to visit at this home upon 
this day, but that, " going one day into 
the home of" one of these later comers, 
she found them engaged as stated above. 
Her solemn "warning of danger and 
duty " was undoubtedly an inspiration 
from Heaven. But if she felt Gods 
presence impelling her to speak would 
it not have been safe to trust the result 
with him, and to have left it to the Holy 
Spirit to so work upon the hearts of 
these persons that they themselves 
would do the act of violent renunciation ? 
I have always believed the card-players 
to have been men, because we hear 
nothing from them. They would not be 
discourteous, even to a discourteously 
overzealous woman. But if an equally 
high-spirited woman had been engaged 
in the questionable amusement there 
might have been a sequel. As it is, we 



22 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

have not been told that these persons 
were benefited, and though after con- 
fessing to Embury — and, by the way, 
perhaps it is well to own to that word 
" confessing." All the records I can find 
simply state that she told Embury what 
she had done. But it seems to me that 
a true woman's heart would, some time 
or other, be troubled over such an act ; 
so, taking a woman's privilege of judg- 
ing another by herself, I have used the 
word. 

After Barbara Heck had confessed to 
Embury, and had persuaded him to be- 
gin preaching at once, we are told that 
she went out and brought in four per- 
sons. Perhaps she returned directly to 
the house where her zeal had been fired, 
and persuaded those very persons to go 
with her to the service. But I dare not 
believe in so beautiful an outcome, 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 23 

because even the prosiest of historians 
could not have resisted the telling of so 
dramatic a sequence. 

We have suffered much as a Church 
through unwise zeal like that of this 
woman. The symmetrical Christian 
grows more considerate of others the 
more he becomes interested in their 
present and eternal safety. He is not 
afraid to urge upon them the claims of 
Heaven, but he is careful to be at least 
as polite in his address as though he 
were collecting a note when the time 
upon its face had expired. 

Christ was severe in a few instances, 
as when he took the whip of small 
cords in the temple; but who among us 
live so like to this Great Example in 
patience, in pity, in tenderness, in for- 
giveness, in self-sacrificing love, that we 
dare also walk closely to him in this 



24 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

thing? Our religion is one of love. Our 
Christ will not compel men into his 
service. What is there left to us but to 
win by our lives, to persuade by our 
example, and to convince by exhibiting 
a spirit unusual to the world? 

The next year Embury s little congre- 
gation was startled by the appearance 
among them of a uniformed British offi- 
cer. It proved to be Thomas Webb, of 
the king's service, and also of Christ's 
service ; a spiritual follower of Wesley 
who had been licensed by him as a local 
preacher. He assisted Embury in the 
work. Following the custom of the 
times, he always wore his military dress 
in public. He preached in it, with his 
sword lying on the table or«desk before 
him. The people were attracted, and 
soon crowded the preaching-room be- 
yond its capacity. A rigging-loft sixty 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 25 

by eighteen feet was rented in 1767, 
where Webb and Embury preached 
thrice each week to fewer people than 
were turned away for lack of room. 

Barbara Heck, who, since the day of 
recalling Embury to duty, had guarded 
the sacred cause " with the vigilance of 
a priestess," suggested a chapel, and 
submitted a plan of the humble edifice. 
" A site on John Street, ever since sa- 
cred," was purchased, subscriptions so- 
licited, and a stone chapel, sixty by 
forty-two feet, was dedicated on the 30th 
of October, 1768. It became a great 
power in that city of New York, which 
numbered at the time about twenty 
thousand inhabitants. 

In 1769, Embury gladly surrendered 
his pulpit to the first missionaries sent 
out by Wesley, and emigrated to Wash- 
ington County, New York, where he con- 



26 Methodist Episcopalianism. 



tinued to labor as a local preacher, and 
where he established the first Method- 
ist class within the bounds of the pres- 
ent Troy Conference — a Conference 
which now numbers more than twenty- 
five thousand communicants and over 
two hundred traveling preachers. 

In this territory his useful life came 
to an end. After fifty-seven years of 
quiet rest his remains were re-interred 
with solemn ceremonies in the Ashgrove 
Cemetery and marked by an appropriate 
monument. 

Some members of both his family and 
Barbara Heck's emigrated to Upper 
Canada, and were among the founders 
of Methodism in that province. 

From this time we shall be compelled 
to notice more and more that one of the 
many marvels accomplished by the 
Church to which we have the honor to 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 27 

belong is its adaptability to " penetrate 
the remote and obscure places — to 
sequestered villages, hidden mountain 
regions, frontier settlements and coast 
islands." The fact that the genius of 
Methodism is spirituality, and that its 
chief representative is a living, breath- 
ing, rejoicing or suffering human person- 
ality, and not merely a stately pile 
of " stones and mortar, nor a religious 
hierarchy," partially explains this fact. 
But it can be more fully explained, per- 
haps, when we remember that its mem- 
bership were early taught the value 
of personal effort and of personal testi- 
mony concerning the great gift of par- 
don which had entered into their lives. 

In those early days, if one found an- 
other who was of the same faith and 
communion regular meetings were held, 
oftentimes in the only room of a log- 



28 Methodist Episcopalianism. 



cabin home. The members of the two 
families were urged to be present, any 
wayfarer on the lonely frontier who 
asked a nights shelter was invited to 
join in the singing, and not infrequently 
gave his heart to Christ before the little 
meeting was over, and went on his way 
in the morning to spread the glad tid- 
ings of personal salvation wherever he 
might stop thereafter. 

Isolation of life led to the deepening 
of thought along the lines of personal 
experience, and the result was many 
holy and sainted lives, simple in faith as 
a child's life, but rising with divine help 
to a masterful grasping of the deep 
things of God's wisdom and providence. 

Another great stimulus to the spread 
and enlargement of Methodism was that 
women were expected both to pray and 
to speak in those " modest meetings ; " 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 29 

and if sometimes the incumbents of 
thrones have not felt safe when certain 
thoughtful women received friends in 
their own drawing-rooms, then the 
" prince of this world " must have trem- 
bled when he saw these gentle-hearted 
women receiving their scattered neigh- 
bors in the single room that served at 
different times as drawing-room, dining- 
room, and chamber; where the only 
light was the pine-knot torch; where the 
only decorations were wild flowers and 
branches of fragrant pine ; where the 
only hangings were the skins of wild 
animals or from looms worked by 
slender hands. 

Each simple beginning was formed 
into a class, and thus " became the nu- 
cleus of a society," to be rejoiced over 
by the itinerant preacher and recognized 
as a regular appointment upon his cir- 



30 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

cuit of thirty or forty towns or settle- 
ments. 

One such circuit was under the care 
of two or three itinerants, and thus each 
little preaching-place was enabled at 
regular intervals to have public services. 
Each class was reported at the Annual 
Conference, its statistics given, its con- 
tributions to the Conference finances pre- 
sented ; and its members were at once 
made to feel themselves " an integral 
part of the great body of the Church." 

We owe more than we can estimate to 
the consecrated efforts of those early 
workers, and to the frontier workers of 
all the years of our colonial and national 
history down to the present time ; for, 
as an irate divine of another communion 
once said in excuse for his opposition to 
the labors of a devout young minister of 
our Church, " The Methodists are like 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 31 

Canada thistles. If you once get them 
in you II never get them out" 

To the brave advance into new and 
untried fields, and to a persistent, reten- 
tive grasp upon whatever ground we 
gain, do we owe much. That we have 
not in connection with these made our 
Church always the great social power in 
every community that it should have 
become is conceded by the wisest minds, 
and ascribed to various causes, according 
to the mental grasp of those discussing 
it. Perhaps it is that we have permit- 
ted, in too many instances, persons with 
narrow views, whose only recommenda- 
tion to consideration has been an evi- 
dent desire to work, to have an almost 
autocratic control over the social exer- 
cises of the Church, until those with 
more advanced intelligence have been 
driven to seek refuge in a communion 



32 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

whose inward helpfulness and peace have 
been represented by more outward re- 
pose and by the exhibition of less un- 
wise zeal. Whatever the cause or 
causes may be, the knowledge that lead- 
ing minds in the Church have been 
drawn toward this fact, and have been 
carefully studying it, should encourage 
us concerning the future. 

The economy of our Church so grew 
up through John Wesley's legislative 
wisdom that it may be said to have 
evolved from the occurring circumstan- 
ces, and as we claim that " practical ex- 
pedience is the only divine right of any 
system," we should have been ready all 
these later years of our history to adapt 
ourselves to the needs of the people — 
the most cultured as well as the hum- 
blest — in whatever was desirable for 
effectiveness. 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 33 

Our articles of religion are abridged 
from the thirty-eight articles of the 
Anglican Church, and convey no tenet 
not received by that body. There is in 
them no hint of our great founder's be- 
lief in the witness of the Spirit, nor of 
Christian perfection, which latter, being 
interpreted, means simply and sweetly 
an earnest endeavor to love God with 
the whole heart and the neighbor as 
one's self. 

Thus we can readily see that it was 
not novel doctrine, but earnest spiritual- 
ity that characterized our early Church. 
The aim was to build up spiritual relig- 
ion as opposed to sectarian theology ; 
but the desire in the heart of this great, 
wise, gentle-souled, yet heroically brave 
man was not that this spirituality should 
manifest itself in the violent physical ex- 
ercises common to zealots. Indeed, he 
3 



34 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

expressly urged upon his co-laborers, 
Whitefield and others, that such exhibi- 
tions should be discouraged, as he was 
persuaded that they did not tend to ad- 
vance the cause. 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 35 



HILE Embury and Webb were 



* * at work in New York, an elo- 
quent, ardent man, Robert Strawbridge, 
was founding Methodist Episcopalian- 
ism in Maryland. He at first opened 
his own house for services. Afterward 
he built a meeting-house of logs, with 
simple openings for light and entrance, 
and without a floor. He journeyed 
through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Virginia, where his ardor and 
eloquence drew multitudes to his services. 
During this time the neighbors took care 
of his little farm gratuitously, and at- 
tended to the wants of himself and his 
self-sacrificing family. When he came 
to die he was widely and deeply mourned. 



II. 




36 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

His funeral oration was preached to a 
vast concourse under a great walnut- 
tree, by Richard Owen, a convert 
through his influence, and one of his co- 
workers. The body was borne to the 
tomb by men who had worshiped with 
him in the old log meeting-house, who 
sang as they went " one of those raptur- 
ous lyrics with which Charles Wesley 
taught the primitive Church to triumph 
over the grave." "He sleeps in an or- 
chard from which can be seen beautiful 
Baltimore, which claims him as (her) 
apostle, and which ever since his early 
labors has been pre-eminent for Meth- 
odist strength and zeal, and is at present 
the chief citadel of our Church in the 
New World." It is delightful to record 
the results for good of one consecrated 
life ; but as we turn toward those early 
days we are too apt to think that it was 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 37 

because the time was propitious to such 
results. I am persuaded that a sweet, 
joyous, consecrated Christian can do as 
much to-day. The trouble is that we 
are afraid to speak of our beautiful re- 
ligion outside of the prayer-room, and 
some of us rarely mention it even there. 
If any thing approaching this theme 
comes unaware into our conversation 
with a friend we grow shamefaced, and 
assume what Chaplain McCabe calls a 
" holy tone," instead of having our faces 
brighten and our voices take on a more 
joyous ring. It is a very serious matter. 
We cannot win people if they think that 
we are professing for the sake of safety 
after death what we are half ashamed of 
during this life. 

I once heard a Baptist minister, who 
is very successful in winning men to 
Christ, say that one of the leading 



38 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

divines of his Church said to him at the 
beginning of his ministry, "John, don't 
be afraid. Don't confine your personal 
exhortations to women and girls, but go 
bravely, courteously up to a man — no 
matter how tall he is nor what his avoirdu- 
pois — look him honestly in the face and 
ask him to become a follower of Christ. 
It takes courage, but he will respect you 
for it, and, with God's help, you will 
win." 

I am persuaded that there are those 
before me now who can, with divine bless- 
ing upon wise personal effort and ex- 
ample, do as great things for the faint- 
ing, scattered masses of to-day as these 
workers whose labors we record did for 
those of their generation. There is not 
enough disinterested work done now. 
Sometimes we endeavor to enlarge a fa- 
vorite class in the Sabbath-school, or to 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 39 

build up a pet missionary society. This 
is well, but it might be better. The best 
work is that which brings people into 
the Church because it is not as well for 
them to be outside of its influence — that 
which urges young people into the Sab- 
bath-school because they are safer within 
its fold, and endeavors to add numbers 
to a society for Christian work because 
there is much to be done and the labor- 
ers are still few. It is not fair to try to 
add to one Church by plucking off those 
who hang loosely to another. The 
world is large ; the unsaved are all 
about us ; there are fields in which the 
ripened grain awaits the sickle. We can 
gather the sheaves for ourselves instead 
of carrying off those that some careless 
reaper has left standing too near the 
boundary-line. One looking from above 
upon some of the so-called church work 



4o Methodist Episcopalianism. 

of to-day would recognize it as a series 
of foraging expeditions — a perpetual 
Alsace and Lorraine struggle for en- 
largement. 

It is as though a company of boys were 
to go chestnutting, and while some beat 
the trees and coaxed the shining nuts 
out of the prickly burrs others did none 
of the hard work, yet carried their 
baskets home filled. Let us all work ; 
stain our fingers, prick our hands to 
bleeding, and gather legitimately. So 
shall we be more like the One who is the 
inspirer of all Christian effort ; who 
left his beautiful home to seek after the 
lost ; and so shall our characters, by the 
development of a right Christian zeal, be 
more like that character which is " all 
beauty." 

The report in England of the labors 
of Embury, Webb, and Strawbridge 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 41 

aroused a few English evangelists, who, 
while Wesley was weighing the expedi- 
ency of sending out missionaries, hastened 
with only a divine commission into the 
whitened fields. The first was Robert 
Williams, a local preacher, who started 
for America with only his saddle-bags, a 
loaf of bread, and a bottle of milk. His 
passage-money was paid by a fellow- 
passenger of the same Church. He ar- 
rived in New York in 1767, and 
preached for six years in Emburys 
chapel. He was the first Methodist 
Episcopalian who published a book, and 
the first who died. 

This man was the apostle of Meth- 
odism in Virginia and Maryland. He 
formed the first circuit, and was the 
spiritual father of Jesse Lee, the heroic 
founder of our Church in New England 
and a chronicler of its early struggles. 



42 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

He did great good by printing and cir- 
culating Wesley's sermons. He located 
after his marriage, and died in 1775. It 
seems impossible not to get facts in. 
strange conjunction concerning this man; 
but, being myself the wife of a Meth- 
odist Episcopal minister, permit me to 
beg you to believe that if his death was 
not caused by authorship it certainly 
could not have been the result of his 
marriage. 

After Williams came John King, a 
man with gentle, winning manners out- 
side of the pulpit, but possessed with the 
idea that when preaching he must exert 
himself vehemently. Some of his more 
quiet discourses were wonderfully effect- 
ive, as. for instance, on his first visit to 
Harford County, when the large audi- 
ence seemed so to oppress him with the 
weight of his responsibility that before 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 43 

beginning his discourse he stood for 
some time in silent prayer, covering his 
face with his hands. The effect was 
magnetic. Many were won before he 
had uttered a word. 

Still, this man, with all his native gen- 
tleness, was a source of affliction to the 
wise heart of our great founder, Wesley, 
who believed that many were driven 
from seeking Christ by his violent dem- 
onstrations. The records show that he 
" made the dust fly from the old velvet 
cushion " when invited to preach in the 
English church in Baltimore, and as a 
consequence that church was forever after 
closed against our denomination. Mr. 
Wesley thought him " headstrong and 
stubborn," and wrote to him : " My dear 
brother, always take advice or reproof as 
a favor ; it is the sweet mark of love. I 
advised you once, and you took it as an 



44 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

affront ; nevertheless I will do it once 
more. Scream no more, at the peril of 
your soul. God now warns you by me, 
whom he has set over you. Speak with 
all your heart, but with a moderate voice. 
It was said of our Lord, ' He shall not 
cry ; ' the word properly means he shall 
not scream. Herein be a follower of me 
as I am of Christ. I often speak loud, 
. . . but I never scream; ... I dare not. 
I know it would be a sin against God 
and my own soul. Perhaps one reason 
why that good man, Thomas Walsh, yea, 
and John Manners, too, were in such 
grievous darkness before they died was 
because they shortened their own lives. 
. . . If you cannot take advice from 
others, surely you might take it from 
your affectionate brother, John Wesley." 

But " physical effects of religious ex- 
citement," outside of the pulpit as well 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 45 

as in it, " were not peculiar to Methodist 
preaching. They had been common in 
the province before the first visit of 
Whitefield, under the ministrations of 
Rowland, whose hearers fainted away 
and were often carried out of the church 
as dead men. . . . They had been com- 
mon under the labors of Edwards in 
New England." We learn from Richard 
Watson's Observations on Southeys Life 
of Wesley that the " best Methodist 
authorities . . . regretted them as hu- 
man infirmities, and recommended all 
possible caution against them." Watson 
himself felt that, although such demon- 
strations did not mean that God was not 
at work, yet by discrimination and firm- 
ness they should be, as far as possible, 
repressed. 

In view of these facts does not the 
prevailing idea that primitive Methodist 



46 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

services meant a vast exercise of lung 
power, and that simplicity in our Church 
to-day means the same, show culpable 
ignorance upon the part of some of our 
members, and the same, if not a worse 
thing, upon the part of those outside of 
our communion who use it against us? 

One year ago this past winter I was 
permitted to enjoy the hospitalities of a 
cultured home in Berlin. The husband 
— a professor in the university of that 
city — was an acknowledged Christian ; 
the wife, whose parents were both au- 
thors, and who had been severely edu- 
cated in literature and graphic art, was 
an atheist. Her reason stood in the way 
of her heart. One evening as we two 
sat alone she asked me about my faith. 
" What is it that makes your face so 
calm?" she asked. "Is it because you 
have this that they call religion in your 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 47 

heart ? Tell me about it. I wrote the 
note asking you to come here to-day be- 
cause I meant to make you talk with me 
about this thing." It was a severely 
difficult place. There was a keen pair 
of eyes watching every expression, and a 
critical mind ready to make note at the 
slightest occasion. With Gods help I 
answered her as simply as possible. But 
when in the conversation she learned 
that I was a member of the Methodist 
Church she looked at me strangely. 

"Impossible!" she said, at length. 
" You are not like that. I have never 
seen those people, but I know what they 
are. Their men stamp and beat the floor 
with their chairs; their women scream 
and sometimes faint away in a meeting. 
They make a clamor when they pray as if 
their God were deaf. They are fanatics. 
Do not tell me you are one of them ! " 



48 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

I cannot express to you my grief at 
finding that the Church of my heart was 
so misunderstood by this lovely and lov- 
able woman. But think how difficult it 
was to meet all this. 

"A lie that is all a lie maybe met and fought with 
outright, 

But a lie that is half a truth is a harder matter to 
fight." 

I had to acknowledge that some of 
our men do stamp and beat the floor, 
and that some of our women do scream. 
But while I told her that such were ex- 
ceptions I could plainly see in her frank 
face that it grieved her to think her 
American friend was one of that com- 
pany. 

Only a few days ago I received a long 
letter from her, full of earnest question- 
ings concerning the works of various 
writers, such as Emerson and Felix Adler, 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 49 

asking me to read Satter's Religion of 
Morals, asking about the school for 
ethic culture in Chicago, and closing the 
subject with : " I only know that really 
good men have all the same faith in the 
Good. Please do write me this — I want 
to know why you are a Methodist : Be- 
cause you were born into that religion, 
or your husband is a clergyman, or be- 
cause you think it better than any other 
Church ? " 

Why should this thoughtful woman in 
the heart of Germany, whose friendship 
is an aid and a stimulus to me, ask these 
anxious questions if our church meetings 
had been always properly conducted ? 

Pardon these personal allusions, but 

they are given for the simple purpose of 

showing you somewhat of my reason for 

feeling deeply upon the subject. 

But all this aside. In view of the words 
4 



50 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

given above from the great names of bur 
Church, may we not believe that when a 
Methodist Episcopal minister of this 
nineteenth century engages in violent 
physical demonstrations during divine 
or social service, and encourages or even 
permits such in those over whom he is 
placed, he goes contrary to the expressed 
wish and command of the wise and 
saintly men without whose devotion, self- 
sacrifice, and divinely-directed wisdom 
we, as a Church, had never been? There 
is, at the very least, a gross misconcep- 
tion indulged in when we hear some 
noisy assemblages spoken of as being 
of the " good old Wesleyan sort." It is 
not easy to account for this and kindred 
expressions except on the ground of in- 
excusable ignorance. When we permit 
ourselves to be called " Noisy Method- 
ists " and " Shouting Methodists " how 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 51 

much better are we, according to our 
light, than a certain class of fanatical 
Mohammedan worshipers who delight in 
denominating themselves, " Howling Der- 
vishes ? " 

The early Church in America, as well 
as in England, was taught at once the 
necessity of liberality. Captain Webb 
used to ask when any one became a 
Christian, "Is his purse converted also?" 
Each little gathering on the circuits was 
expected to contribute to the general ex- 
penses ; and when I read the appeal to 
Mr. Wesley for a preacher from the 
worshipers in the rigging-loft in New 
York I found the words growing dim 
before my eyes. These men and women 
and children climbed a " rude ladder " to 
their galleries, and sat upon benches that 
had no backs, yet they could write to 
Mr. Wesley words like these : 



52 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

" We want an able and experienced 
preacher. One who has both gifts and 
graces for the work. Great numbers of 
serious persons come to hear Gods word 
as for their lives. With respect to money 
for the payment of the preacher's pas-' 
sage over, if he cannot procure it we 
will sell our coats to procure it for 
him." 

In answer to this cry from the sail-loft 
for a preacher of " sound wisdom," at the 
twenty-sixth Annual Conference, in Leeds, 
Richard Boardman, a man of "great un- 
derstanding coupled with a loving and 
child-like temper," and Joseph Pilmoor, 
a courageous man of deep piety, ready 
discourse, and a dignified presence, re- 
sponded. The other preachers present, 
nearly all poor, more than two thirds of 
them unmarried because unable to pro- 
vide for families, took a collection of two 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 53 

hundred and fifty dollars for these two, 
in token of brotherly love. 

Whitefield, the wonderful man, crossed 
the sea — his thirteenth voyage — at the 
same time, though in another ship. But 
he came to die. " I am happier than 
words can express," he said ; 44 my happi- 
ness is inconceivable." He met the mis- 
sionaries at Philadelphia and gave them 
his blessing. His last sermon, an effort 
of stupendous eloquence, was preached 
the 30th of September, 1770. His 
last exhortation was given the evening 
of the same day at Newburyport. The 
people thronged the house where he 
stopped and gazed up at him with tear- 
ful faces as, frail and evidently not long 
for this world, he ascended the stairs to 
his room. 44 Some vague presentiment 
touched his soul . . . that the moments 
were too precious to be lost in rest." 



54 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

He lingered and addressed words of ad- 
vice and encouragement to the people. 
" His voice, never perhaps surpassed in 
its music and pathos, flowed on until the 
candle burned away." The next morn- 
ing he was not, for God had taken him. 

During the last years his labors had 
been accomplished with rare effort. He 
had almost continually a burning fever. 
But he desired prophetically and with 
heroic enthusiasm to die in the pulpit or 
soon after leaving it. To use his own 
words, he desired to die " blazing, not 
with human glory, but with the love of 
Jesus." 

His life had felt its trials. Once within 
three days he was refused entrance to 
five pulpits. But he bore all patiently 
He was large-souled and fiery-hearted. 
He was admired by the modern giants 
in skepticism — Hume, Bolingbroke, as 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 55 

well as by Garrick, Walpole, and Ches- 
terfield. He attracted the nobility as 
strongly as the common people. In our 
day ministers learn forms of eloquence 
from actors, but to him actors came to 
study and to learn, if possible, the se- 
cret of his indescribable power. He 
preached, even out of doors, in a gown. 

Most remarkable results were brought 
about by the reading of his sermons, 
which proved that in themselves, and 
apart from his rare voice and magnetic 
presence, they were powerful produc- 
tions. Long before the death of White- 
field a gentleman in Virginia was in the 
habit of inviting neighbors to his house 
on Sundays to hear one of his printed 
sermons. The throngs increased until a 
meeting-house was erected simply to 
accommodate those who would come. No 
one dared offer public prayer upon these 



56 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

occasions ; yet people were deeply con- 
victed. The reader was invited to other 
towns, and soon four chapels sprang up 
as a result. 

In Mr. Wesley's printed Minutes of the 
Conference of 1770 America is recorded 
as having four itinerant preachers. In 
the Conference of 1771 he again called 
for volunteers. " Our brethren in Amer- 
ica call loud for help," he said ; " who 
will go ? " He was answered by Richard 
Wright, who remained in this country for 
four years and then returned to England; 
but another answered him who became 
the representative character of American 
Methodism — Francis Asbury. He was 
then about twenty-six years of age ; a 
thoughtful man, with a studious, intro- 
spective mind somewhat tinged with 
melancholy, such a mind as "can only 
find rest in labor ; because designed for 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 57 

a great work and therefore endowed 
with a restless instinct for it ; " a man of 
few words, " of marvelous insight into 
character," of a severe temperament soft- 
ened by a profound religious humility. 
He never lost self-possession, never 
yielded to discouragement, was sagacious 
and prudent. Owing to the elevation of 
his strong spirit, the sublime conceptions 
of his mind, it was impossible to ap- 
proach him without feeling his strong 
influence. " Holiness," he wrote, " is the 
element of my soul." He was attentive 
to his apparel, and the dignity of his 
manner was always easy and never con- 
strained. Wesley perceived the great 
qualities inherent in this man, and at the 
ensuing Conference appointed him at 
the head of the American ministerial 
itinerancy. His labors in the New 
World were even greater than those of 



58 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

Wesley in the Old. He traveled more 
miles each year and preached as often. 
Since the apostolic age there has not 
lived a more perfect example of devotion 
to principle and to purpose. He pene- 
trated to the wilds of Tennessee, accom- 
panied by an armed guard to protect him 
from the savages. He had to swim riv- 
ers, to sleep on the ground or watch all 
night with the sentinels, and to "endure 
other hardships scarcely conceivable to 
the inhabitants of that prosperous State 
in our day." 

If the history of any country is the life 
story of its great statesmen then the his- 
tory of a Church is formed from the 
biographies of its workers. He was one 
of the few men whose greatness must 
necessarily be told " in words which 
would be mere hyperbole if applied to 
most other men. His administrative 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 59 

talents were as great as those of Rich- 
elieu or Caesar." His attitude when 
speaking was dignified, his voice was 
commanding, and there were times 
" when his eloquence like a mountain 
torrent swept all before it." 

He found about six hundred mem- 
bers and ten preachers in the colonies, 
besides the four missionaries. But he 
had right speedily to meet and combat 
the question which rises periodically for 
discussion, and which frequently causes 
the withdrawal of honored and respected 
ministers — that of a settled pastorate. 
Mr. Asbury himself had " a call " to an 
Episcopal church in Maryland. Some 
of his ministers complained of the labor 
and hardship attending a six-months' pas- 
torate ; some of them married and then 
desired more than ever a settled home. 
But this wise man saw that with the 



6o Methodist Episcopalianism. 



people so widely scattered, and with so 
few ministers, only the larger centers 
would be favored with religious services 
unless the system of circuit-riding was 
continued. He insisted upon the itiner- 
ancy. The ministers complained more 
and more. The sad accounts of his toils 
and of the opposition he met are very 
pathetic reading. 

In 1772 he wrote begging an assist- 
ant from Mr. Wesley, who sent over 
Thomas Rankin; not a great preacher, 
but one of the most commanding of 
men, and a more rigorous disciplinarian 
than he whom he came to relieve. 
His severity provoked more than it 
mollified, and Asbury had to come for- 
ward again with his milder yet no less 
firm exercise of authority. Through the 
united efforts of these two the then 
great evil was averted, and all the settled 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 



61 



country continued to receive religious 
instruction and help as before. 

Rankin brought with him from En- 
gland George Shadford, whom Wesley 
loved as a son, and who became As- 
bury's most dearly-beloved friend, a 
modest, sweet-spirited man, who won 
many to Christ. 

The first Quarterly Conference in 
America of which we have any record 
occurred in this year of 1772. 

About this time the first Methodist 
chapel in Baltimore was built, through 
Asbury's efforts. Its pulpit was built in 
tub-fashion, very high, with the sounding- 
board suspended by a cord over the 
preachers head. In looking up this 
matter of the pulpits used in those early 
times I found an account of the Phila- 
delphia Cathedral of Methodism, so- 
called, in which occurs the following: 



62 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

" For a long time it was half floored 
with rough boards, and its pulpit was a 
rude square box on the north side. . . . 
But in process of time it was floored 
from end to end, and more comely seats 
were put in it, with a new pulpit like a 
tub on a post, which was the fashion of 
the time, but one of the worst fashions 
that ever was for a pulpit." 

The United Brethren, a German soci- 
ety, was formed about this time, which 
was a development of Methodism quite 
analogous to our own, and germinated 
under the watchful eyes of Asbury. Dr. 
Otterbein was one of the leaders, a man 
of rare culture. In 1815 they adopted a 
Discipline which was mainly an abridg- 
ment of ours. Their Conferences and 
offices are the same. 

In 1774 was the Great Revival, so 
recorded, when in some places our num- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 63 

bers were trebled or quadrupled. As 
rumors of war strengthened the English 
preachers began to return to England ; 
but Wesley sent out fresh recruits, for 
he believed that " Methodism was now a 
permanent fact in the moral destiny of 
the New World." James Dempster, 
Martin Rodda, and William Glenden- 
ning relieved Asbury in Philadelphia and 
Baltimore. Dempster was a Scotchman, 
educated at Edinburgh University. The 
first year his health failed. He married, 
and joined the Presbyterian Church, 
"with a distinct avowal of his adherence 
to the Wesleyan doctrines, of which his 
views never changed," although he was 
an acceptable pastor of that Church 
as long as he lived, which was until 
1804. His son was a Methodist and 
did distinguished work in the ministry, 
in missions, and in educational insti- 



64 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

tutions. Martin Rodcla remained here 
but three years. He imprudently inter- 
meddled with politics, and circulated the 
royal proclamation against American 
patriots. His brethren in the ministry 
suffered afterward from his indiscretion. 
He fled the country, and returned to 
England. 

As war-clouds threatened, Thomas 
Rankin, whom you will remember was 
sent out to relieve Asbury, caused the 
heart of that great-souled man severe 
trials, and often defeated his plans for 
labor through his own "honest British 
bewilderment." 

"In two or three years more all the 
American missionaries had fled the coun- 
try or had left the denomination except 
Asbury, whose loyalty to the Church 
was superior to his loyalty to the British 
throne." His heart was true to the col- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 65 

onies, and he also felt, what was true, 
that " American independence implied 
the independence of American Method- 
ism " — a Church separate from the State. 
Our Church " became virtually independ- 
ent at the breaking out of the war. 
Though the constitution which organ- 
ized it into the Methodist Episcopal 
Church was to be adopted in about one 
year after the treaty of peace with Great 
Britain, it preceded the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution by about five years. 
The recognized epoch of American 
Episcopalianism was 1776, amid the 
storm of excitement which compelled 
the repeal of the Stamp Act." The first 
Annual Conference of American Meth- 
odism was held in the stormy year of 
1773, when the British ministry passed 
the act respecting tea which proved it- 
self so costly in Boston harbor, 
5 



66 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

" Taxation without representation be- 
ing the grievance," the rock upon which 
England's hold upon us split, our colo- 
nists and churchmen felt that the rights 
of mankind were at stake. It was a 
moral movement. The crime of war 
was upon England's side, the suffering 
upon ours; but as most of the Christians 
had come to the New World to escape 
religious oppression it is no wonder that 
" Puritans and Quakers from England, 
Scotch Presbyterians from the north of 
Ireland, Palatines from the Rhine, Hugue- 
nots from France, Waldenses from Pied- 
mont, and Methodists from Ireland," 
could unite in the cause that meant free- 
dom for conscience as well as freedom of 
country. 

The colonists " were in advance of the 
social condition of any European popu- 
lation at that time." They had the " ma- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 67 

turest social order, . . . the least amount 
of pauperism," and, the common schools 
being in existence, they had the largest 
popular intelligence. " There were at 
least nine colleges and two medical 
schools." 

But many were suspicious of the loy- 
alty of our Church to the colonial cause 
for several reasons: Its great earthly 
head was in England ; its superintend- 
ent here was an Englishman ; many of 
its preachers here had been Englishmen 
who had returned to their native land 
when war-clouds lowered. " Opposition, 
reproaches, and persecutions rushed in 
against even the native-born preachers 
from every quarter, like a tempest." 
" Some were fined, imprisoned, . . . beaten 
so as to carry their scars to the grave." 
Freeborn Garrettson — the bearer of 
that famous name — was one of those 



68 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

who suffered severely, barely escaping 
from a mob with life in his body. But 
through it all Asbury remained wise of 
heart high of purpose, and possessed of 
the patience that is the true accompani- 
ment of greatness. He was to lead the 
Church as triumphantly as Washington 
led the nation. Afterward he was " re- 
enforced by some of the ablest minds 
with which American Protestantism has 
been blessed," and a native ministry of 
giant-souled, true apostles were to press 
onward the only form of religion that 
advanced in America during that dark 
period. 

So this American Methodism is a child 
of struggle. It grew hardened and vig- 
orous through storms; an almost miracu- 
lous growth, for it more than quadrupled 
during the war. Its hymns, were sung 
by camp-fires and repeated to the dying. 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 69 

Its blessed faith in the witness of the 
Spirit sustained many souls through 
weary deprivation and struggle, and a 
belief in the personal care of Christ for 
each of his children made men the best 
of soldiers. They grew more earnest in 
the cause of liberty who took Christ with 
them over long and weary marches, and 
though they were oftentimes faint with 
hunger, and their feet were bleeding, they 
remembered that He had also been an- 
hungered and weary ; and since they 
could feel his presence in their hearts 
and his blessing upon their cause they 
would not despair. 



70 Methodist Episcopalianism. 



III. 

IN 1776 Wesley met Thomas Coke, 
LL.D., the son of a wealthy Welsh, 
family, and finely educated. His earnest- 
ness had caused him to be " chimed out 
of his church, and the mob was treated 
with a hogshead of cider in celebra- 
tion of deliverance from a Methodist 
preacher," though he had at that time 
no relations with Wesley. 

" Wesley had matured the disciplinary 
system of Methodism, Fletcher, of Made- 
ley, had settled its theology, and Charles 
Wesley had provided for it a psalmody." 
Coke was providentially " to organize 
under Wesley the Methodist Episcopal 
Church as its first bishop, ... to found 
the Wesleyan Missions in the West 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 71 

Indies, England, Wales, and Ireland, . . , 
and to give from his affluent fortune 
more money to religion than any other 
Protestant of his time." Asbury called 
him " the greatest man of his century in 
labors and services as a minister of 
Christ." He came to America accom- 
panied by two assistant elders, Thomas 
Vasey and Richard Whatcoat, that he 
might in his ordinations conform to the 
usages of the English Church, which 
required in that solemnity the co-oper- 
ation of at least two presbyters with the 
bishop. 

Whatcoat's name has peculiar fra- 
grance. He was of beautiful deport- 
ment, " adorned with personal graces. 
His amiable, heavenly, and courteous 
carriage " was such as to make him the 
delight of his acquaintances. He was 
also a man of rare fortitude. Thomas 



72 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

Vasey gave up a large English prop- 
erty as the price of becoming a Meth- 
odist. 

These three men Wesley selected as 
sharers in the serious responsibility of 
organizing the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the United States of America, 
which had up to that time " been receiv- 
ing its converts into its churches without 
baptism. It had no sacramental altar, 
for the English clergy who had been 
regularly ordained," failed it after the 
outbreak of the war. Mr, Wesley had 
written to Bishop Lowth, of London, 
pleading the ordination of at least one 
presbyter to administer the sacraments 
in America. " I mourn," he wrote, " for 
poor America, for the sheep scattered 
up and down therein." But, his request 
being denied, himself ordained Coke — 
who was already a presbyter of the 



Methodist Episcopaltanism. 73 

Church of England — a bishop, under the 
unpretentious title of Superintendent. 
The day before he had ordained Vasey 
and Whatcoat deacons. On the same 
day that he ordained Coke bishop he 
had with his assistance ordained the two 
latter elders or presbyters. Afterward, 
with their assistance, he ordained Coke 
bishop. The Methodist Episcopal bish- 
ops were the first Protestant bishops of 
the New World, and Methodism was 
the first Protestant Episcopal Church. 

In frontier work we can hardly esti- 
mate the honor due to our local preach- 
ers. You will remember that Embury 
and Webb, who had wrought so faith- 
fully in New York, and Strawbridge 
in Maryland, were but local preachers. 
The itinerancy and this system of pas- 
torate have gone hand in hand as pre- 
eminent facts in our history, and the 



74 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

local preachers have been the advance 
column of the workers. 

Wesley's " Calm Address " to the 
colonies, urging them to submit to tax- 
ation and retain peace, was a mistake. 
It grew out of his intimacy with the 
great Dr. Johnson, who acknowledged 
Wesley's paper in one of his most pol- 
ished paragraphs in the Gentleman s 
Magazine: "To have gained such a 
mind as yours," he says, "justly confirms 
me in my own opinion. What effect 
my paper has upon the public I know 
not, but I have no reason to be dis- 
couraged. The lecturer was surely in 
the right who, though he saw his audi- 
ence slinking away, refused to quit the 
chair while Plato stayed." 

But " the day of Lexington and Con- 
cord " so stirred the heart of Wesley that 
he frankly corrected himself, and ac- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 75 

knowledged the right of the colonies. 
He wrote to Lord Xorth and the Earl 
of Dartmouth, each a severely emphatic 
letter, in which he called himself a 
high churchman and the son of a 
high churchman, bred up from child- 
hood in the highest notions of non- 
resistance; yet he could not "avoid 
thinking these an oppressed people ask- 
ing for nothing more than their legal 
rights. They are strong," he said, " they 
are valiant, they are, one and all, enthusi- 
asts ; enthusiasts for liberty ; calm, de- 
liberate enthusiasts." He wrote " in 
the same year advising his American 
preachers to be peace-makers, loving 
and tender to all, to addict themselves 
to no party, but to act in full union 
with each other." Following this wise 
counsel, the Methodists, while all the 
other religious bodies were retarded, 



y6 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

quadrupled their numbers during the 
war. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church was 
the first religious body to recognize the 
organization of the national govern- 
ment. " Bishops Coke and Asbury, in 
the name of the Conference in session 
at New York, waited on Washington, 
then just inaugurated, on May 29, 1789, 
and read to him the address of the 
Conference, signed in behalf of the 
Church, which promised fervent prayers 
that he might be enabled to fill his im- 
portant station to the glory of God, the 
good of his Church, and the welfare of 
mankind." To which Washington re- 
plied at length, closing with : " I must 
assure you in particular that I take in 
the kindest part the promise you make 
of presenting your prayers at the throne 
of grace for me, and that I likewise im- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 77 

plore the divine benediction on your- 
selves and your religious community." 
Other denominations followed the ex- 
ample. 

We also remember that, later on, a 
Methodist Conference was the first 
ecclesiastical body to pledge its loyalty 
to Abraham Lincoln, when all hearts 
were chilled with a sense of awful over- 
hanging grief, when the misguided chil- 
dren of our nation aimed at the nations 
life. In the sad years that followed 
our Church sent out one hundred thou- 
sand white and seventy-five thousand 
colored troops to battle for God and for 
the right. So in both of these struggles 
Methodism has fed the heart of the 
nation by making its interests hers, and 
by giving her prayers along with the 
dearest of her sons. 

The first two bishops were Washing- 



78 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

tons intimate friends, and were often 
entertained at Mount Vernon, when he 
expressed himself, upon the subject of 
human slavery, as being of their mind. 

The Revolutionary struggle had 
given birth to the sentiment of equality 
and freedom for all, which became articu- 
late at each session of the Conferences. 

Asbury says of the i 783 Conference in 
Virginia : " We all agreed in the spirit of 
African liberty. Our affairs were con- 
cluded in love." He wrote at another 
time : " If the Gospel will tolerate slav- 
ery what will it not authorize?" His 
care in instructing individual colored 
persons was remarkable. 

At the third General Conference, in 
1796, the slave question was again dis- 
cussed with severity. Virginia was the 
seat of the trouble. A general fast was 
proclaimed for the first Friday in the 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 79 

March following, and one of the sins for 
which this penance was required was 
slavery. This subject continued to dis- 
turb every assembly of these ministers 
until near our own time, 1844, when, 
after the General Conference, there was 
held in Louisville, Ky., a convention 
which formed a plan of separation into 
Northern and Southern Methodism, dis- 
solving the jurisdiction of the General 
Conference over the Southern Confer- 
ences and creating a separate ecclesias- 
tical connection under the title of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
Their form of government remained the 
same. The division was solely upon the 
ground of human slavery,^ which, in the 
beautiful language of those who opposed 
it, was declared "contrary to the golden 
law of God." We cannot cease to re- 
gret the necessity for this division, and 



8o Methodist Episcopalianism. 



are looking toward a reunion upon the 
broad platform of equal rights to all 
Gods children, whether cut in ebony, as 
Charles Lamb has it, or in ivory. 

During his journey to America Coke 
entertained himself with books and 
prayers. He read the lives of Xavier 
and Brainerd, the Greek Testament and 
Augustine's Meditations, and indulged 
his scholarly taste in the pastorals of 
" Virgil," which, he said, " conveyed (him) 
by a kind of magic power to fields and 
groves and spreading brooks." 

" After landing at New York the three 
(Coke, Vasey, and Whatcoat) proceeded 
south, Bishop Coke preaching as they 
went. At Barretts chapel, after the ser- 
mon, a man went up into the pulpit and 
kissed him." It was Mr. Asbury. The 
two embraced. The other preachers 
wept, and the whole assembly was 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 8i 



touched to tears. The sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper followed the sermon, and 
was administered for the first time 
among American Methodists by their 
own regularly ordained preachers. 

Dr. Coke was unlike Mr. Asbury. His 
stature, complexion, and voice, says 
Thomas Ware, "resembled those of a 
woman rather than those of a man," so 
unlike was he to the grave apostolic As- 
bury. " His manners were very courtly. 
Before we parted I saw so many things 
to admire in him that I no longer mar- 
veled at his being chosen by Wesley to 
serve us in the capacity of Superintend- 
ent." Dr. Coke himself said of Asbury : 
" In the presence of Mr. Asbury I feel 
myself a child. He is, in my estimation, 
the most apostolic man I ever saw ex- 
cept Mr. Wesley." 

" Some of the first scholars in the 

6 



82 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

country said that Coke spoke the purest 
English they ever heard. His fine clas- 
sical taste did not raise him in his own 
estimation . . . above the most diffident 
and retiring." 

On the 24th of December, 1784, the 
first General Conference was held in 
Baltimore, in the Lovely Lane chapel, 
when Mr. Coke gratefully acknowledged 
the kindness of the people in furnishing 
the building with a stove, and backs to 
some of the seats / A paper was read 
from Mr. Wesley in which he spoke of 
Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury as joint Super- 
intendents over the Methodist Church 
in America, and also of Richard Whatcoat 
and Thomas Vasey as elders to baptize 
and administer the Lord's Supper. " If 
any one," he wrote, " will point out a 
more rational and scriptural way of feed- 
ing and guarding these poor sheep in the 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 83 

wilderness I will gladly embrace it. At 
present I cannot see any better method 
than that I have taken, ... as our Amer- 
ican brethren are now totally disentan- 
gled both from the State and from the 
English hierarchy. . . . They are now 
at full liberty to follow the Scriptures 
and the primitive Church, and we judge 
it best that they should stand fast in that 
liberty wherewith God has so strangely 
set them free." So it " was agreed," says 
Mr. Asbury, " to form ourselves into a 
Methodist Episcopal Church in which 
the Liturgy as presented by the Rev. 
John Wesley should be read." As this 
provision has never been formally re- 
pealed any Methodist Episcopal society 
can adopt it. The liturgical service fell 
into disuse because the time allotted to 
it was frequently occupied by the Sab- 
bath Conference meeting, called the 



84 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

love-feast. After 1792 we find no trace 
of its having been used. The use of 
gowns and bands, worn by the bishops 
and elders, also became obsolete, because 
of long journeys and the often necessity 
of preaching in private houses and in the 
open air, though there has never been 
any formal action in either case, and any 
of our churches could revive their use 
to-day. 

It is well known that Mr. Wesley ob- 
jected to the term bishop on account of 
the evil repute into which in his own 
England it had fallen ; but, as it had been 
in use above a year in America before 
his objection was known, it was thought 
best not to change. 

This Christmas General Conference 
lasted ten days, instead of four weeks as 
is customary now, and had its session in 
mid-winter instead of spring ; but no 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 85 

doubt, with new direction and new help- 
ers, the early Church found that, accord- 
ing to the hymn, " December's as pleas- 
ant as May." 

It is significant that this General Con- 
ference fixed the salary of the preachers, 
and that the same sum was to be given 
to the preachers wife, and one fourth the 
sum to every child over six and under 
eleven. I regret to be obliged to tell 
you that this most commendable custom 
has fallen into disuse ; and that although 
the ministers wife of nowadays may be 
the soul of sympathy, and president of 
all the societies in the Church and out 
of it, and although her children are ex- 
pected to abstain from every thing which 
may shock those ubiquitous persons who 
have never been young themselves, still 
there is neither salary nor quarter salary 
for the minister's wife or child. There 



86 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

are occasions upon which it is admissi- 
ble to sigh for the good old days of 
Methodism ! 

At a previous Conference a point which 
had nearly divided the Church was hap- 
pily stayed. Some who clung to the old 
Established Church forms had been op- 
posed to the administration of the ordi- 
nances by unordained preachers ; others 
were in favor of continuing them. There 
was no indication that the matter could 
be adjusted, as each, while exhibiting a 
beautiful spirit of devotion, felt strongly 
upon the subject. It had been finally 
decided to suspend the ordinances for 
one year and ask the advice of Mr. Wes- 
ley. The coming of Bishop Coke with 
Presbyters Whatcoat and Vasey averted 
the threatening evil. 

During the next few years several of 
the ministers found the itinerancy so 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 87 

severe that they joined the Protestant 
Episcopal Church. 

When Bishop Coke first arrived he 
met — to use his own words — " with an 
excellent young man, Freeborn Garrett- 
son, (who) seems to be all meekness and 
love, and yet all activity. He makes me 
quite ashamed, for he invariably rises at 
four in the morning to study." 

Mr. Garrettson so shrank from the re- 
sponsibility of a traveling preacher that 
after having been enrolled as a member 
of the Conference he fainted and sank 
upon the floor when he had reached the 
house at which he was stopping. He 
was a wealthy young man, and had, at 
family prayers one morning, pronounced 
his slaves free. 

It was his delight to pioneer the Gos- 
pel into new and desolate places. In the 
great Cypress Swamp, in Delaware, he 



88 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

met many who had no religion whatever, 
not even knowing of Christ. When he 
first went among the people their land 
and houses, with but few exceptions, 
were poor. Most of them preferred fish- 
ing and hunting to cultivating the land. 
" After the Gospel came among them 
. . . they became industrious and happy, 
left off gambling, tilled their lands and 
built homes. . . . Experience taught 
many that there is nothing like the Gos- 
pel in its purity to meliorate both the 
temporal and spiritual condition of man. 
. . . The peninsula became a garden of 
Methodism." 

This chronicles but a small part of the 
work of this devoted man, once rich and 
at ease, but afterward willing to be strait- 
ened in any way and to labor without 
ceasing for the welfare of others. , 

Caleb B. Pedicord, a man whose ap- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 89 

pearance is described as beautiful in its 
combined expression of intelligence and 
moral refinement, joined the Conference 
in 1777. A young Revolutionary soldier, 
Thomas Ware, heard him preach and be- 
came a follower of Christ. Asbury 
commissioned the latter to preach, but 
when he called him to become an itine- 
rant the stalwart young soldier answered 
that he had no conviction upon the sub- 
ject. Here is his own account of the 
conversation : " 1 No conviction, my son/ 
said Mr. Asbury to me sternly, . . . 
' Has the charge given to the disciples, 
" Go and evangelize the world," been re- 
voked ? Is the world evangelized ? ' I 
looked at the world, it was not evangel- 
ized. I consented to fulfill his desire." 

Many names might be dwelt upon. 
There was Ezekiel Cooper, whom his as- 
sociates called Lycurgus, on account of 



90 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

his great knowledge and wisdom ; John 
McClaskey, of the sweet voice ; John 
Brodhead and Peter Moriarty, of whom 
,one could not forbear saying as he 
looked at them, " With such men we can 
take the world;" Cooper, the intrepid 
standard-bearer; Lawrence McCombs, a 
giant even in those days of giants ; Dr 
Thomas F. Sargent, who died in the pul- 
pit, and long ranks of others equally de- 
voted, wise, and successful. Such intrepid 
men were appreciated by Asbury. 

We find in the journal of William 
Colbert, another one of these honored 
men, an entry which may interest us. 
In 1793 he wrote: "By the time I had 
ridden from Geneva to the ferry on Cay- 
uga Lake I was very hungry. I stopped 
at the house on the west side of the lake 
and asked for something to eat, but 
they told me they had no bread. A pot 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 91 

of potatoes being on the fire I was glad 
to get some of them. But, to my satis- 
faction, while I was sitting by the potato- 
pot a man came in with a bag of wheat 
flour on his back. I then procured some 
bread to eat and to take with me, and it 
was well I did, for when I crossed the 
lake to Captain Harris's house, where I 
lodged, they had no bread." Bread was 
scarce then, and in some instances not to 
be obtained. Valentine Cook, a fine clas- 
sical scholar, and able to preach fluently 
in German, writes concerning this very 
territory : " Yesterday I walked upward 
of thirty miles in mud and water. My 
horse was sick. I could not procure an- 
other. My appointments must be met. 
The rain and my wet clothes were my 
element and God my comforter." Stal- 
wart Methodism should grow from such 
planting. 



92 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

We find something of interest, too, 
concerning the methods of these men. 
There was Thomas Smith, who would 
never give over twenty minutes to one 
sermon, and when the people clamored 
for more — O, those good old days when 
sermons were clamored for ! — he would 
formally announce a second and even a 
third text, and move through another 
" twenty minutes' discourse like a war- 
steed in a charge.'" 

Perhaps it would be well to look just 
for a moment at the life of the one man 
whose name occurs so frequently and with 
such sway in early American Method- 
ism — Francis Asbury. " His power over 
others came from the most rigid control 
over himself. Notwithstanding the hard 
frontier life — on horseback, in chaises, on 
foot, stopping in log huts and in soldiers' 
camps, he read about one hundred pages 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 93 

daily, studied hard on his long routes, 
and by his unaided efforts became able 
to read the Holy Scriptures in the orig- 
inal Hebrew and Greek. He was famil- 
iar with ecclesiastical and general his- 
tory and with systematic theology. He 
seems to have had peculiar success in 
gathering about the standard of his 
Church . . . devout families of the higher 
classes. In most of the middle provinces 
there were now examples of wealth and 
social influence consecrated to this 
struggling cause ; opulent mansions be- 
came . . . sanctuaries of worship for the 
humble people." 

Rankin (whom you will remember as 
sent at Asburys request to take his place 
in the superintendency of American 
Methodism before the Revolution) could 
not appreciate Asbury, and his letters to 
Mr. Wesley were to such effect that the 



94 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

latter actually recalled Asbury in 1775. 
" Let him come home without delay," 
he wrote. But the letters did not reach 
our devoted leader, for he was hundreds 
of miles in the interior, bearing the 
severest deprivations, and saying, " All 
this is but a trifle to suffer for Christ 
and the salvation of souls. Lord, stay 
by me ! " Mr. Wesley, soon after, had 
reason to thank God for the failure of 
his order. 

In Asbury's journal of 1792 we read, 
" In a camp of soldiers they honored me 
with the swinging hammock made of a 
bear's skin, which was as great a favor to 
me as the governor's bed." 

To Mr. Wesley he wrote, " You know, 
sir, it is not easy to rule, nor am I 
pleased with it. I bear it as my cross. 
It seems that a necessity is laid upon 
me. O pray for me that I may be filled 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 95 

with light and power, with zeal and pru- 
dence, and, above all, with humility." 
How can we help venerating this beau- 
tiful strong-souled man ! 

One notices in his journals a constant 
and heroic struggle against a deeply- 
morbid temperament, which struggle 
adds " a new luster to his unparalleled 
life and character." During all his minis- 
terial career he did the work of from ten 
to twenty ordinary men. He had the 
poorest of fare almost continually, and 
suffered constant fevers, chills, sickness, 
and rheumatism. When we remember 
that he fasted regularly every Friday, and 
went without food from morning until 
the night of almost every day, we do not 
wonder at his sometimes severity, but we 
do wonder that, in spite of all, his life 
was so mighty and effectual. His only 
indulgence was tea, which he carried 



96 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

with him. This saintly man preached 
until he had to be aided up the pulpit 
stairs and to sit while preaching ; but he 
retained his great powers to the last. 

An extraordinary man, Thomas Paine, 
came into prominence in our country 
during the war, and was now prepared to 
do hard work against the cause of Chris- 
tianity by the eminence he had gained 
through services in the cause of Amer- 
ican freedom. He was of Quaker 
parentage, received but the elements of 
education, ran away to sea, afterward 
was privateer, exciseman, tobacconist, 
and school usher. He divorced his wife, 
came to America, and in due time 
became the friend of Washington, Jeffer- 
son, and the two Adamses. It is claimed 
that he was the first " to write politics for 
the million." He had not so much 
genius as audacity united with a practi- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 97 

cal wisdom. His thought was direct and 
forcible, though often clothed in a coarse 
style. At the darkest hours during the 
struggle his Crisis would appear, 
printed upon coarse brown paper, and 
give new impetus to the flagging zeal of 
our starving soldiers. We owe much to 
him. Washington acknowledged his ef- 
forts with gratitude, and three of the 
States voted him funds or lands. If his 
life had ended at this time, or had be- 
come a retired one, many another life 
would have ended less sadly, perhaps; 
but his was a restless spirit. He went to 
France, united himself with the revolu- 
tionists, although he voted against the 
execution of Louis XVI. He was im- 
prisoned, hourly expected to be drawn 
in the dreaded tumbril along the sad road 
to the guillotine. It was on his way to 
prison that he gave the manuscript of his 



98 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

Age of Reason to an American fellow- 
citizen. The authors life was spared by 
a mere accident, and he returned to 
America, dropped into intemperance, and 
died in ignominy. 

The popular infidelity resultant upon 
his writings prevailed in the United 
States and caused one of the severest 
trials to our early preachers, until an 
unparalleled reviving of spiritual life 
swept over the country, which deeply 
impressed the whole moral life. 

From 1792 to 1796 there was much 
hostility shown to our denomination. In 
New England the Rev. Mr. Williams, of 
another sect, stoutly denounced the pre- 
tensions of a divine call to the ministry, 
and spoke of our ministers, along with 
much severer terms, as being deceived 
themselves and aiming to deceive others. 
A printed letter by a Rev. Dr. Hunting- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 99 

ton says : " The modern Methodist 
teachers do without any scruples make 
use of truth and deceit promiscuously as 
they judge will most promote the 
interest of their party." He spoke of 
our " heretical doctrines," and called 
Wesley a " flaming enthusiast," given to 
" wild singularities," such as " the institu- 
tion of class-meetings." 

This sermon and letter were answered 
by our Dr. Roberts, whose ability and 
satirical power were so strong that the 
current of opinion was turned in our 
favor. 

The Rev. Mr. Williams came after- 
ward — through knowing the self-deny- 
ing lives of the men he had assailed — to 
change his opinion, and often invited 
those same " deceitful " Methodist min- 
isters to his house. 

As Methodism is a Church whose very 



ioo Methodist Episcopalianism. 

essence was the missionary spirit, it did 
not map out a separate plan until, in 
1 8 19, the organization of a missionary 
society was brought about through the 
influence of Dr. Nathan Bangs, who 
looked after every interest for sixteen 
years without salary, or compensation of 
any kind, and before his death was able 
to rejoice over four hundred mission- 
aries — some in "the frontiers of the 
United States among Indians, others in 
Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, 
Bulgaria, Africa, India, China, and South 
America — with total receipts, not includ- 
ing the Church, South, of more than four 
and one half millions of dollars." 

Methodism has always appreciated 
the importance of literature, and though 
some of its exponents have seemed not 
to do so, and have vaunted their igno- 
rance of grammar as well as rhetoric, they 



Methodist Episcopalianism. ioi 



have been the exceptions, and have been 
unduly quoted by those outside of our 
fold. 

"Wesley proposed in his very first 
Conference a school for the training of 
his preachers. . . . The high intellectual 
character of many of the ministerial lead- 
ers of our Church practically raised the 
standard of pulpit ability and promoted 
the popular demand for it." " Next to 
the missionary development (the English 
Methodist prized) the Wesleyan The- 
ological Institution of British Meth- 
odism, where students are so trained 
that many of them go to distant lands 
already acquainted with their vernacular 
languages along with classical and the- 
ological training." Would that American 
Methodism had such an institution. 
Our young missionaries would not so 
speedily break down under the double 



102 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

strain of attempting to do conscientious 
work for souls and at the same time 
learn a difficult language with which to 
approa:h them. 

Of our hymns, I will only quote from 
the Presbyterian Quarterly for March, 
1858, which says: "We regard it as a 
great loss to the Presbyterian churches 
of our country that so few, comparatively, 
of Charles Wesley's hymns should have 
been admitted into their collections. It 
may not be generally known that, not 
even excepting Dr. Watts, he is the most 
voluminous of all our lyrical authors, 
and it were only justice to add that he 
is the most equal. We have never read 
or sung a finer specimen than his well- 
known paraphrase of the twenty-fourth 
psalm, ' Our Lord is risen from the dead.' 
There is also another objective hymn by 
(him) . . . 1 Stand the omnipotent de- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 103 

cree.' . . . Well has this hymn been 
spoken of as being in a strain more than 
human. There is (his) noble hymn . . . 
' Jacob wrestling with the angel/ concern- 
ing which Dr. Watts did not scruple to 
say that it was worth all the verses he 
himself had written. James Montgomery 
declares it to be among the poet s high- 
est achievements. Never have we read 
a finer combination of poetic taste and 
evangelical sentiment." 

Of our theology I rejoice to say that 
it is not dogmatic, its sole aim being 
spirituality and helpfulness. Wesley 
" prescribed no mode of baptism, but vir- 
tually recognized all modes ; and it has 
been doubted . . . whether even a res- 
torationist or universalist, if exemplary 
in life, could be adjudged a heretic by 
(our) creed." 

This witness of the Spirit is not an 



104 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

opinion peculiar to Methodism, "but 
common in its essential form to the lead- 
ing bodies of Christendom, Greek, Ro- 
man, and Protestant." It was held by 
Melanchthon, " strenuously maintained 
by Calvin," and " held by Arminius." Mr. 
Wesley said that he apprehended that 
the whole Christian Church in the first 
centuries enjoyed it. In regard to per- 
fection — so-called — he taught that we 
are " no more to expect any man to be 
infallible than to be. omniscient." 

When in his eighty-fifth year he wrote, 
" There is no other religious society un- 
der heaven that requires nothing of men 
in order to their admission into it but a 
desire to save their souls. Is a man a 
believer in Jesus Christ, and is his life 
suitable to his profession ? are not only 
the main but the sole inquiries I make in 
order to his admission into our Society." 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 105 

It seems strange that so many men in 
these later days should find it necessary 
to leave our Church in order to breathe a 
more liberal atmosphere. Even Robert 
Ingersoll, that bitterest of critics, finds no 
fault with our beautiful, broad creed. 

Mr. Wesley said once, " I have no more 
right to object to a man for holding a 
different opinion from me than I have 
to differ with a man because he wears a 
wig and I wear my own hair ; but if he 
takes his wig off and begins to shake the 
powder about my eyes I shall consider 
it my duty to get quit of him as soon as 
possible." 

Wesley preached one sermon which 
advocated the immortality of the lower 
animals. It is of very great interest, for 
it shows that this man, with all his plans 
for benefiting the race, took time to 
think kindly of these willing servants and 



106 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

faithful friends of ours, so many of whom 
have such scanty reward in this life for 
their devotion and service. 

In 1 756 Mr. Wesley sent forth his " Ad- 
dress to the Clergy," pleading earnestly 
for the best qualifications for their office 
and contending that " without a knowl- 
edge of the original tongues of the 
Scriptures no clergyman can ' in the 
most effectual manner' expound and de- 
fend them." He pleaded earnestly for 
logic, history, and the natural sciences. 
He complained of their desultory habits 
of study. " We must, absolutely must, 
cure this evil," he says in his pathetically 
earnest way, " or give up the whole work. 
Read the most useful books, and that 
regularly and constantly. Studiously 
spend all the morning in this employ- 
ment, or at least five hours in the twenty- 
four. 1 But,' you say, ' I have no taste 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 107 

for reading.' Cultivate a taste for it, or 
return to your trades. ' But,' you say 
again, ' different men have different tastes.' 
I say, therefore, some may read less than 
others, but none should read less than 
this." 

These words followed an ardently- 
earnest exhortation to his ministers to 
increase their pastoral work, their per- 
sonal care for the individual, their in- 
struction of the children of their people. 
"O let us," he concludes, "stir up the 
gift of God that is in us. Let us no 
more sleep, . . . but whatsoever our hand 
findeth to do, let us do it with our 
might ! " 

He seems to have been ready upon 
almost every subject of learning and gen- 
eral literature, familiar with a number of 
modern languages, and ready to con- 
verse in the Latin tongue. Indeed, he 



108 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

loved to use this language when dis- 
coursing upon the deeper heart mysteries 
of religion, and it was during one of his 
usual Sabbath afternoon confidential 
conversations in the Oxford University 
groves and cloisters with Dr. Bohler — 
afterward a Moravian bishop — that he 
experienced the blessing of the witness 
of the Spirit. Let those who sneer at 
our Church formulate their thoughts in- 
telligently in the Latin tongue, or let 
them hereafter forever hold their peace ! 

Mr. Wesley also insisted " upon the 
highest style of manners as necessary to 
the (clerical) office ; ' all the courtesy of 
the gentleman joined with the correctness 
of the scholar. St. Paul,' he said, ' showed 
himself before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa 
one of the best-bred men, one of the 
finest gentlemen in the world/ . . . ' Take 
care,' he continues, 4 of any thing awk- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 109 

ward or affected while preaching, either 
in your gesture, phrase, or pronuncia- 
tion. Beware of clownishness. Be court- 
eous to all.' " 

The poet Crabbe spoke of Wesley as 
receiving him upon one occasion " with 
benevolent politeness." 

In his rules for young ministers there 
occurs this remarkable advice : " Converse 
sparingly with women, especially with 
young women ! " 

A German historian " classifies with 
German elaborateness the works of Mr. 
Wesley as poetical, philosophical, his- 
torical and theological." He reduced 
many folios to pocket volumes and 
" waded through masses of literature to 
simplify it and cheapen it, so as to give 
every variety of useful and entertaining 
knowledge to the hovels of the poor. 
He projected The Arminian Magazine \ 



no Methodist Episcopalianism. 

now the oldest religious periodical in the 
world." 

American Methodism has been true to 
his example. Its Book Concern grew 
up in 1789 through John Dickins, who 
was appointed Book Steward of the de- 
nomination. The only capital was six 
hundred dollars, lent to it by Mr. Dickins 
himself. Its first publication was Wes- 
ley's translation of Thomas k Kempis's 
" Imitation of Christ." 

No one who realizes that the ministers 
of our Church have founded and main- 
tained what has grown to be the greate-st 
religious publishing-house in the world 
should disparage them as unenlightened 
and uneducated. These oftentimes he- 
roic, self-denying men and their bitterly- 
economizing families would rejoice in fine 
libraries and current literature, but they 
are often kept down by the cramping 



Methodist Episcopalianism. hi 

exigencies of poverty, caused, in many 
places, by unwilling and slow support. 

We have had faults as a Church. 
Methodists have seemed to think it their 
duty to do as did the Puritans of the 
seventeenth century, " cultivate the grim 
and the ugly," and to fear " the approach 
of Satan through the avenues of what- 
ever is graceful and joyous." Many of 
them have been saying for twenty-five 
years that if the spirit of John Wesley 
were to come upon earth and look for its 
followers it would never dream of find- 
ing them in the stately churches where 
many of them worship. But I believe 
that the spirit of the man who made 
Methodism a simple adaptation to occur- 
ring exigencies would recognize the 
growth of our country in wealth and 
taste, and would rejoice to find that his 
followers had not been behind in either. 



ii2 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

For I remember with pleasure the evi- 
dent satisfaction with which, in his later 
years, he wrote in his journals of the fine 
new chapels which were building in En- 
land, and called them " elegant edifices." 
Let us not permit longer such gross mis- 
representations of the tastes and opinions 
of this broad-souled man in order to suit 
narrower notions ; and when his simple 
life is quoted in our hearing let us say — 
what is the truth — that he economized to 
give and not to hoard ; for there is a dif- 
ference between the two. 

Woman's work, that we as a Church 
recognize, began when Susanna Wesley 
read her husbands sermons during his 
necessary absence, and many were com- 
forted and helped. When her husband 
learned of it he objected; but she was 
not permitted by the loving people to 
desist. It must be remembered, how- 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 113 

ever, by the women of to-day who are 
clambering toward the pulpit that there 
were few preachers then. It was a neces- 
sity, and not a desire for publicity, that 
caused her to do this work. 

Although to-day it is estimated that 
our church influence includes one fifth 
of the nation, what might it not have 
been if schisms had not entered ? That 
was a very serious matter when an in- 
fatuated few led off into what they chose 
to call Free Methodism — which chiefly 
meant freedom to criticise those from 
whom they had withdrawn. " The char- 
acter most offensive to God," says Hodge, 
" is that of a malignant zealot for the 
truth," and the so-called Free Method- 
ism has been not so much a "protest 
against bigotry as bigotry itself." Still, 
we may be thankful, for the sect serves 

as a sort of safety-valve to that zeal 
8 



ii4 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

without knowledge which we cannot 
utilize. 

In 1824 lay representation and kindred 
questions began to excite the Confer- 
ences. Personal passions marred inquiry, 
and in 1830 a new body — the Protestant 
Methodist Church — was founded "by 
men whose character, talents, and prestige 
as eminent preachers rendered their loss 
.... . a deplorable misfortune. . . . About 
thirty thousand were thus lost to us, and 
we can the more regret it now as our 
own elder Church has since adopted some 
of the measures " which caused the 
schism. 

John Wesley was buried in the early 
morning of the 9th of March, 1791, by 
torchlight, to avoid the pressure of the 
eager crowd. The faith of the devout 
was sorely tried because of different judg- 
ments among even the senior preachers. 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 115 

Many were the predictions that the hope of 
Methodism was buried with its founder. 
It was surely divine care that kept 
this later ark afloat, for there were surg- 
ing over the civilized world the tumults 
of the French Revolution. " The throne 
of France was falling as Wesley lay 
dying. For a quarter of a century the 
throne and the altar, social and religious 
order all over Europe, were shaken by 
moral earthquakes." The American peo- 
ple had conquered in their revolution 
and had brought out of their struggle 
victory from burdens, the light of free- 
dom from the smoke of war, the bless- 
ings of peace and rights of conscience 
from the din of battle. The Church was 
enfranchised by being divorced from the 
State. Religion was standing alone with- 
out legal support for the first time, and 
Christian thinkers in all parts of the 



n6 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

world might well feel anxiety for' the 
moral features of the New World. But 
through Gods help, and because " the 
Church and the school were considered 
an indispensable part of life," disaster did 
not come. 

The effect of Mr. Wesley's guidance 
and letters of advice was such that the 
Church in America bore after his death 
what it had borne in different ways dur- 
ing his life. If we study the secret of 
his influence we find it in the " serene 
radiance " of his life, so " rarely com- 
plete," and we but marvel the more as 
we study it the more. His rule was 
always to do the duty nearest to him, as- 
sured that all others would come in their 
due order. There was a trait of military 
coolness and command in his manner at 
times, so that he was constantly spoken 
of as one having authority from God. 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 117 

" I feel and grieve," he wrote in his 
journals when trials were sorest, " but by 
the grace of God I fret at nothing." 

Poetry and music were natural gifts, and 
we read of him as admiring the paintings 
of Raphael, Vandyke, and Rubens. 

I shall never forget the day when, 
after having eaten bread at my table, an 
ordained minister of our Church, who 
considered himself one of Wesley's 
closest followers, looked upon the pict- 
ures against the walls of my home and 
asked me sternly if the Lord Jesus 
could live in the house ! If he had 
been a competent critic I might have 
considered his words as rather severe 
upon my work. But it was not that ! 
Sweetest charity could not reach so far. 
He was simply expressing a sanctimoni- 
ous horror at any attempt to elevate 
thought by an appeal to the pleasure of 



n8 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

sight. Such a man, with his preternat- 
urally long face and his canting voice — 
one who could repay hospitality with 
carping criticism — an example of the 
teaching of our great founder ! 

Often during Mr. Wesley's never- 
resting life he longed for a home, how- 
ever humble, " where with books and 
meditative tranquillity he might live 
more unto himself, or for the few who 
were dearer to him than himself." His 
personal character was as sweet and 
simple as his public life was heroic and 
true. One biographer says that " his 
friendships were strong even to weak- 
ness." " He was the welcome guest of 
the humble and the delight of statelier 
homes." 

Most of us have read with tears the 
touching story of his love for Grace 
Murray. How his brother Charles, with 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 119 

others, fearing that domestic happiness 
would weaken his interest in the Church, 
hastily caused " her marriage with one of 
his preachers." How, later, seeing their 
mistake, they influenced his marriage 
with one who, feeling sure that she did 
not possess his heart's first and best 
affection, allowed herself to grow morbid, 
and to make through many years his life 
far from comfortable. In advanced life, 
when both he and she who had been his 
only real love were freed by death — if 
death can break bonds, which I believe 
possible only when the bonds unite 
those who cannot become one in spirit — 
she came out of her shrinking womanli- 
ness and sent for him, and he allowed 
himself, in the company of a friend, the 
pleasure of a single conversation with 
her. "The meeting was affecting." It 
did not continue long, and he was never 



I2C Methodist Episcopalianism. 

heard to " mention her name afterward." 
God knows what all of this suffering 
means. We can leave it, and all other 
that we find ourselves powerless to 
alleviate, with that One who has also 
suffered, and who promises in a great 
and beautiful day that he will wipe 
away all tears from all eyes. 

Through God, the man who could 
thus bravely suffer and still have only 
sweetness at the center of his life was 
the founder of this beautiful spiritual 
structure which has been builded by cult- 
ured minds consecrated to unshrinking 
service and devotion. It has been 
added to, strengthened, and beautified 
by the untiring diligence of those almost 
worthy of sainthood. Its borders have 
been enlarged by devoted, self-sacrific- 
ing souls, until it stands to-day a monu- 
ment wrought out through the tears 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 121 

and prayers of those of whom the earth 
was' hardly worthy. They builded its 
portals lofty enough to admit the high- 
est, and wide enough for all who will 
enter, and so easy of approach that the 
lowliest need not lose their way. Its 
forms are simple and dignified, so that 
none need ever go astray in worship. 
Its beautiful heaven-born creed offers a 
salvation as wide as humanity, as free as 
God's own great love to the world, and 
so full that no one need fail of being 
satisfied. It started with the republic 
and has been keeping pace with it. Let 
lis advance with it in spirituality, in 
moral courage, in all wise culture. Let 
us be true to it. Let us speak its name 
with dignity, and let us forever feel that 
our membership within its ranks is an 
honor to be rejoiced over. 



122 Methodist Episcopalianism. 



General Conference of 1888 has 
had its session, and religious matters in 
general have been widely discussed by 
the press of the country. The ratio of 
increase of the leading denominations in 
the city of New York during the past 
five years has been computed as follows : 
Protestant Episcopal, 31.74 per cent; 
Presbyterian, 8.20 ; Baptists, 5.06 ; Meth- 
odists, 1.1 2 ; while there is an actual loss 
of 5.78 per cent, among the Congrega- 
tionalists. 

Would not our wise founder, with his 
judicious adaptiveness to existing cir- 
cumstances, find reason for action in these 
statements if he were with us to-day? 



CONCLUSION. 




preparing the preceding the 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 123 

The astonishing growth of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church is, in some de- 
gree, due to a desire on the part of a con- 
gregation to have a share in the service. 
Our own services, as a rule, are bare. In 
many city churches we have a paid quar- 
tette and an occasional out-of-date hymn- 
book in the pews. The members of the 
quartette are paid to do the singing, and 
the church intends that they shall earn 
their money. The order of service is 
about as follows : A hymn by the quar- 
tette, a prayer, and two scripture lessons 
by the minister ; a second hymn by the 
quartette, a sermon and short prayer by 
the minister ; another hymn by the quar- 
tette, followed by the benediction from 
the minister, and the service is over — a 
service in which the only thing arranged 
especially so that the congregation can 
take part is the collection. 



124 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

With us every thing seems to hang 
upon the popularity of the preacher, and 
seems calculated to set off the sermon, 
as though he were a theatrical star who 
chose to be badly supported in order that 
his own resplendence might the more 
bewilder. This has caused, in some in- 
stances, a strained manner in the minis- 
ter, because of his efforts to arouse the 
sleepy interest of a congregation that has 
had nothing to do to keep it awake and 
alert. 

Suppose a stranger were to enter for 
the first time a church in the city where 
he had come to make his home, and 
should find in every pew several copies 
of psalms, with other scriptures, arranged 
for responsive reading. Suppose he 
found also hymn-books in the hands of 
all the people, and one awaiting his own 
use. If he saw a quartette of singers he 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 125 

also saw that one of them stepped for- 
ward and used a baton, thus encouraging 
all present to feel that something was ex- 
pected of them. 

"As well the singers as the players on 
instruments shall be there," said David. 
There is great fault found with the lives 
of orchestral players, but if the Church 
were to lay its hand upon this powerful 
aid and make it worth the while, profes- 
sionally, for these men to lead lives that 
need not exclude them from taking part 
in God's service, the results might reach 
widely in various directions. 

" Is zis ze church where zey have a band 
o' music?" asked a bright little fellow of 
the sexton of a city church not far away. 

The sexton said " yes " to the eager 
questioner, and was rewarded with, " Well, 
Fs a tummin' to zis church, an' Fs a doin' 
to brin' all my frens ! " 



126 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

The band of music referred to con- 
sisted of two violins, a flute, and cornet, 
besides the organ, and these were only- 
used during the singing of the hymns. 

If it is argued tha*t extra music and 
responsive reading take more time, and 
complaints are made of lengthy services, 
the minister might try shortening his ser- 
mon. Has he not had things all his own 
way long enough to make at least a 
trial ? 

Then, the members of this model 
church have made it a free church. They 
love the cause, and are willing to pay- their 
money without having reserved seats 
that advertise, by their position, the rela- 
tive sum paid by the occupant. If clear- 
eyed, earnest business men look after the 
finances of the church it will be possible 
for the pastor to invite the stranger and 
the poor to the house of God without 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 127 

hearing the sad or unwilling response, 
" We have no pew. We are glad to give 
our mites, but they would not amount to 
enough to pay the price for a pew." 

More than one city church is going 
grandly forward upon a plan like this : 
An estimate is made of the sum necessary 
to meet all of the church expenses for 
the year ; a respected committee can- 
vasses the membership and congregation, 
either personally or by post, for subscrip- 
tions ; and then the treasurer sees to it 
that these subscriptions are promptly 
paid and all obligations promptly met. 

There is another matter that has long 
been upon my heart. I have wished for 
wisdom to formulate it properly, so that 
its spirit might begin to work like 
leaven in our great Church. About two 
years ago there appeared a short para- 
graph in a paper which, after the paper 



128 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

had been destroyed and even its name 
could not be remembered, still clung to 
my memory and would not be shaken 
off. It was to the effect that if every 
Christian in the world were to pledge 
himself or herself to bring, with Gods 
help, one soul to Christ for every re- 
maining year of his or her life, and if 
every convert thus won were to pledge 
the same, and every successive convert, 
it would be but twenty years before the 
whole world would be saved J 

I took my pencil one day and tried to 
prove to my conscience that the statement 
was untrue. But I could not do it. The 
statement as then made was correct. I 
went over the figures again and again, 
but they told the same story. 

A little later I came upon the follow- 
ing: 

"'One soul this year for Christ/ was 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 129 

the simple and very modest wish of one 

of the saints of God recently expressed 

in a prayer-meeting. There is food just 

here for thought. One soul for Christ. 

It seems but a small achievement for 

one filled with the spirit of Jesus to woo 

and win another from sin in twelve 

months. A three-hundred-and-sixty-five 

days' search for a single soul would seem 

to be a waste of faith and time. A soul 

for a soul. Is this not more than we 

usually accomplish ? Is it not within 

the possible ? Look not out upon the 

millions of lost ones and by one mighty 

act of faith endeavor to lift them, for 

this has been the secret of your failure in 

the past; but fix your faith upon one and 

bend all your power of heart and will to 

accomplish its salvation. You may not 

be sufficiently strong in faith to grasp 

and lift a multitude, but you may lay 
9 



130 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

hold of one and assist that one to the 
cross of Christ. 

Your grandest opportunity and mine 
is not with the multitudes, but with 
single ones — at the work-bench, the 
office, the home ; the one in your employ, 
the servant who waits upon and cares 
for you. Here we may lay hold of the 
multitude and bring it to God. This 
may appear insignificant to you; but how 
many in all your experience can you 
look upon with rapturous delight as the 
blessed result of your work in the Lord's 
vineyard ? May the ' one lost sheep/ 
and the 'one piece of silver' referred to 
by the Master inspire us to a more care- 
ful and diligent search for one soul this 
year for Christ." 

The Society of Christian Endeavor is 
a grand movement, but it might have 
more glorious results if all of its active 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 131 

members were pledged to lead, each, 
one soul to Christ for the remaining 
years of their lives. As Christians we 
are too intent upon our own personal 
struggles. We analyze and criticise to 
see if we are making progress ; but we 
are not offering a hand to one near us 
who has not learned the way to Christ. 
Ourselves can get very near to the 
Master in that way. We pray for more 
faith, we ask for more grace ; but to what 
end? I confess to feeling frightened, 
sometimes, at the wrestlings in prayer- 
meetings for the salvation of souls that I 
have listened to from persons who have 
given no evidence outside of the prayer- 
room that they were especially con- 
cerned in bringing lost ones into the 
fold. 

I would have in every church a soci- 
ety of ones working for the ones. Thus 



132 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

we would have a revival throughout the 
year. One hundred members each of 
whom should bring one to Christ during 
the year ; that would mean one hundred 
new converts, whether there were any 
"protracted meetings" or not. In my 
position as " intermediate human cush- 
ion " between the pastor and his people I 
have come to think that much of the 
restlessness on the part of the churches 
of our denomination, and their constant 
urging for revival effort, is often the 
result of an endeavor to stifle conscience 
along this very line of personal, single- 
handed face-to-face effort ; an attempt to 
roll off upon the devoted head of the 
pastor and other church officiary a re- 
sponsibility which it is not possible to 
delegate to another, and for which every 
one will be held personally accountable 
by One before whose tribunal it will not 



Methodist Episcopalianism. 133 

be easy to offer excuse. Many of the 
unchristian are afraid of the very name 
of revival, and will accept an invitation 
to church at any time more cheerfully 
than when it is understood that one is 
in progress ; but gentle private persua- 
sion, if our lives are pure and peaceable, 
will lead many a one to Christ and into 
the Church at any time of the year. If 
we have not some for whom we can 
pray, then how poor we are ! Prayer 
must lose its zest if only ourselves and 
a great unnamed " all men every-where " 
are to receive the blessings for which we 
plead ; and even the ordinary generaliza- 
tion, " Lord, build up thy kingdom in the 
earth," seems a hollow mockery if offered 
by one who is not earnestly seeking the 
salvation of some one. 

An old man said once to Mr. Emer- 
son : "Whenever I see you enter a room 



134 Methodist Episcopalianism. 

I think that I will try to show you how 
beautiful humanity is." We should try 
to show our friends out of Christ how 
beautiful, joyous, life-sweetening, and 
radiant is his love in the heart. The 
great world is a hungered for the peace 
that can come from no other source. 

The figures given at the opening of 
these last thoughts sounded like the 
reckonings of an alarmist, but the 
simple problem in arithmetic which fol- 
lows can be made to solve our future as 
a Church. Methodist Episcopalianism, 
with its creed so simple and sweet that 
it seems but an echo of the beautiful 
invitation of Jesus, "Come unto me, all 
ye," may rescue many during this com- 
ing year if we will but have it so. 



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